Good morning Woodboro! Brush your teeth and get the crust out of your eyes 'cause it's time to start another day of WDGN Slaydio: All metal, all *sssst* another classic from bluegrass legend Jimmy M*sssst* are heading down to Kansas City for Monday's game, and we'll be following them with live cov*ssssst* Zapdos and Charmeleon, everybody Polkamo*ssssssssssst*

Welcome to Woodboro, recently voted the hottest radio market in America for the fourth year in a row. Woodboro is home to no fewer than six local radio stations and they each want a piece of the pie. In fact, they each want all of the pie. Take charge of one of them and expand your influence until the entire town listens to you; hijack other stations to get control of the airwaves; or just drown out your opponents' noise with good old fashioned pummeling. Turn on, tune in, take over!

http://www.freewebs.com/dimagic/ConquerClub/Woodboro_neut.pngPlease do note: The crude presentation of the instructions is strictly due to the fact that I haven't had a decent night's sleep in three days. When I have time, they will be replaced by a much more visually-stimulating and easy-to-follow instructions.

Well, there's been a lot of recent foraying into the conquest-type-gameplay genre and the vast majority of them seem to be on the side of big to very big. What gives, guys? Our players are patient enough to sign up for a game where they start with just one territory, and for that you reward them with even more grey spaces to get in the way? I do see cairnswk is working on a smaller conquest map but of course it is complicated to the point of adorability so all the time spent not trying to plow through ten neutral continents is instead spent boggling over the rules.

Now, I don't want to become the miniaturization fairy for this foundry, but that whole Age of Doodles/Doodle Feudalnonsense got me thinking that a small, simple conquest map really is in order. Of course, I'm not going to draw it in crayon -- I'm not *that* much of a one-trick pony.

Nor will this one be as utterly minimalistic as the last miniaturization attempt. I'm shooting for rules at about Feudal War level of complexity: Easy to learn, tricky to master. The most fancy trick this map has is the killer neutral one-way assault radio towers (it's easier to visualize if you think of them as waterslides). I'm also thinking of rescaling the default territory bonus (as noted on the image below) but haven't settled on how much to do it by.

There are 42 territories in all on the map. 6 of them are starting territories (That's still legal, right? I don't feel like fitting two more on here), and 6 of them are special killer neutral waterslides, which leaves just 30 for the bulk of conquest. And to make things even easier, you only need 24 to win. Breeze!

(Incidentally, if I'm forgetting anything, I blame it on not having had a decent night's sleep in three days)

TitleGOOD MORNING WOODBORO!In a small New Jersey town, six radio stations vie for listeners. Control 24/30 houses or 5/6 stations to stand victorious!

- You get one army to deploy for every two territories you own, with a minimum of two. - Your radio stations deploy two armies automatically each turn. - The big white houses are potential sponsors. Each one gives an extra army each turn. - The reciever[sic] dishes can pick up long-range signals. Assault them from your antennas! - Antennas revert to one neutral army after one turn.

Industrial Helix wrote:And I think you're going to need 8 starting points.... not sure though. You can prolly squeeze it in between Ungar and van der veen.

I really can't just spawn new radio stations -- their positions are somewhat calculated for equidistance and such. If it's absolutely necessary, I'll figure out another way to get two players in.

Sadly, I can see the wait-a-week-for-your-turn convention complain that 8 starts are needed for their lottery assassin games. Which inevitably means an ass-ache getting everything equidistant again.

A possible solution = have the 6 radio stations as fixed starting positions that revert to neutral for 8 player games. Where do players start then? On 8 additional 'external' territories, maybe roads into town or something, that can all attack some territory or other? That would keep the lottery assassin once-a-week tribe happy and leave the 6 stations as the major feature for 6-player-or-less games. They could all be DeeJays ( ) - each with a house they can attack (as there are 8 buildings with a neutral 2-value). If they start with one neutral then it would realistically be round 2 before they can attack their house - meaning they probably dont get used much in 6-player-or-less games (but they are all the only starting point in 8-player long wait lottery games).

You are spot on, there is certainly a niche for this style of game on a smaller scale. St Patrick's Day was a big hit.

It's a bit more balanced this way, while not being completely symmetric. Spiced up the grass colors, added a sky and sun, redid labels, replaced title with something readable. Instructions and neutrals are thus:

DJ Teflon wrote:Sadly, I can see the wait-a-week-for-your-turn convention complain that 8 starts are needed for their lottery assassin games. Which inevitably means an ass-ache getting everything equidistant again.

I sort of thought ahead on this one and made it possible to host 8 players on a simplified version of the map. The antennae stop being territories and the dish houses become pirate radio stations. To compensate for their position in the center and the fact that they're only attached to a single 1-neutral house, they get an extra auto-deploy (they'd also be in a starting positions tag together):

DJ Teflon wrote:A possible solution = have the 6 radio stations as fixed starting positions that revert to neutral for 8 player games. Where do players start then? On 8 additional 'external' territories, maybe roads into town or something, that can all attack some territory or other? That would keep the lottery assassin once-a-week tribe happy and leave the 6 stations as the major feature for 6-player-or-less games. They could all be DeeJays ( ) - each with a house they can attack (as there are 8 buildings with a neutral 2-value). If they start with one neutral then it would realistically be round 2 before they can attack their house - meaning they probably dont get used much in 6-player-or-less games (but they are all the only starting point in 8-player long wait lottery games).

That's an even cleverer solution. I probably wouldn't do roads, though, since the two-value houses are internal. Maybe I'll make the DJs/hosts actually live in some of the houses and add their studios as territories in the corner, a la Bamboo Jack's camps, that connect to the houses -- some of those would necessarily be next to each other but like those crapshooters care. I like that this solution maintains the gameplay and gives players more options. Maybe I'll draw this one up and have a poll.

Option 1:6 Radio Stations & 2 Pirate Stations are the starting territories. In 1-7 player games:Both pirate stations are one start position. So, in 1 v 1, one player has 3 legit stations, the other has 2 stations and 2 pirate stations.

Option 2:In 1-6 player strategy games:Each player has equal numbers of radio stations and DJ houses to start

Option 1:6 Radio Stations & 2 Pirate Stations are the starting territories. In 1-7 player games:Both pirate stations are one start position. So, in 1 v 1, one player has 3 legit stations, the other has 2 stations and 2 pirate stations.

In fact, the idea was for the pirate stations to be opposite starting positions, not a single set, so that one player never holds both pirate stations. In practice, I'd probably include the bluegrass and lightning bolt stations in the mutual exclusivity ring, to make sure that it holds for four-player games, too.

Ok - I think I got confused when you said - 'I sort of thought ahead on this one and made it possible to host 8 players on a simplified version of the map. The antennae stop being territories and the dish houses become pirate radio stations. To compensate for their position in the center and the fact that they're only attached to a single 1-neutral house, they get an extra auto-deploy (they'd also be in a starting positions tag together)'

DJ's houses should probably have a common colour, It's rather hard to pick them out at the moment. Also, while I like the font, it has rather a flaw in that all the H's look like X's. I would also suggest finding something other than plain white for the background-you might have to experiment with that a little. Finally, shouldn't there be an apostrophe after Woodboro seeing as it is short for Woodborough-just kind of looks wrong to me atm.

Last edited by Balsiefen on Sat Aug 29, 2009 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Balsiefen wrote:DJ's houses should probably have a common colour, It's rather hard to pick them out at the moment. Also, while I like the font, it has rather a floor in that all the H's look like X's.

I did notice that, and the fact that I stuck with Heavy Heap is a testament to how well I think it fits compared to every single other font I have. I suppose I'll have to either edit the Hs manually or just not have any names with Hs in it.

Balsiefen wrote:Finally, shouldn't there be an apostrophe after Woodboro seeing as it is short for Woodborough-just kind of looks wrong to me atm.

In fact, the vast majority of -borough towns in the States have been simplified to -boro, a fact made official by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names once it was formed in 1890 by order of President Benjamin Harrison. Notable exceptions to such rules include Foxborough, Massachussetts, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which retained its final 'h'. Fun trivia!

YipYipDog wrote:hi, maybe i'm dense or something, but how will someone ever get the +2 bonus for the radio station transmitter tower if it reverts to neutral at the end of every turn

Ah, excellent question! The station and antenna are separate territories, and while to a player who's actually playing the map this will be an obvious fact, it looks like I should indicate this in the instructions somehow.

Option 1If the pirate stations are the least preferred stations then setting the normal stations as starting positions and the pirate stations as the only 2 'ordinary' terits (with everything else neutral) means that they would be neutral in 1-6 player games (as the xml cant share 2 terits between 3 or more). In a 7 or 8 player game, the normal radio stations would become 'normal' terits, so each player in a 7/8 player shoot-em-up would get 1 of the normal or pirate stations. I think (I could be wrong)! Still, option 2 is my preference as the antenna come into play.

Option 2Perhaps the DJs at the side could be faces, or records or some other kind of icon? It seems wierd that they have house icons as though they are a house attacking their house. Would players start with a DJ and house, or just a DJ? Just a DJ would be interesting (as it would realistically take 2 turns to attack in shoot-em-ups) and probably fairer with the houses at different proximinities to the sponsors and dishes. Plus,in a 6-or-less-player game it would render attacking from the DJs a less attractive option and keep the gameplay focus on the original idea.

DJ Teflon wrote:Option 1If the pirate stations are the least preferred stations then setting the normal stations as starting positions and the pirate stations as the only 2 'ordinary' terits (with everything else neutral) means that they would be neutral in 1-6 player games (as the xml cant share 2 terits between 3 or more). In a 7 or 8 player game, the normal radio stations would become 'normal' terits, so each player in a 7/8 player shoot-em-up would get 1 of the normal or pirate stations. I think (I could be wrong)! Still, option 2 is my preference as the antenna come into play.

What I could do is change the antennae so that they assault all sponsors, and give the pirates the capability to bombard (but not assault) the sponsors without an antenna. Not needing an antenna might compensate for the fact that they're in such a central location (and make them particularly handy in fog games), while not allowing them to attack remotely might compensate for the fact that each pirate actually borders a sponsor. If that works I might prefer this arrangement to Option 2, as it means the board can stay smaller.

DJ Teflon wrote:Option 2Perhaps the DJs at the side could be faces, or records or some other kind of icon? It seems wierd that they have house icons as though they are a house attacking their house.

The DJ icons were meant to look like house interiors; I guess they're a bit sparsely-decorated for that.

DJ Teflon wrote:Would players start with a DJ and house, or just a DJ? Just a DJ would be interesting (as it would realistically take 2 turns to attack in shoot-em-ups) and probably fairer with the houses at different proximinities to the sponsors and dishes. Plus,in a 6-or-less-player game it would render attacking from the DJs a less attractive option and keep the gameplay focus on the original idea.

That's absolutely what I had in mind -- note that the icons in the corner had colorful numbers but the ones on the board are a neutral gray (white doesn't show up well but imagine they're white)

I'm liking the progress evil - I reckon you can safely go for the poll - making sure the options are in post 1 for folks to easy find them.

6-player option would prob not be allowed of course but definitely worth having as an option just to show what people think - maybe worth having as a seperate question though (as these folks would no doubt go for one of the allowed options too)?

iceco wrote:As background, why don't you try (orangy) yellow on top and then to the green below? Kind of makes you think of the sun rising at morning.

That's pretty much what I went for with 8a's background. I tried a more pronounced yellow but it was far too dominant for my taste.

DJ Teflon wrote:6-player option would prob not be allowed of course but definitely worth having as an option just to show what people think - maybe worth having as a seperate question though (as these folks would no doubt go for one of the allowed options too)?

The Neon Peon wrote:I am fairly there is rule in the foundry that new maps have to accommodate at least 8 people.

The closest rule to that seems to be

oaktown wrote:Game type flexibility. The map should support various game types and not be designed with specific/limited game settings in mind (standard, assassin, fog of war, 2-8 players, etc.).

A 6-player-limit map supports 70% of possible game settings; and there are enough extant maps with this limit that it wouldn't be unusual if a new one came out. I suppose this rule is up to interpretation. Any foundry sages care to opine?